DNA-RNA and RNA-RNA hybridization are important to many aspects of nucleic acid function including DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Hybridization is also central to a variety of technologies that either detect a particular nucleic acid or alter its expression. Antisense nucleotides, for example, disrupt gene expression by hybridizing to target RNA, thereby interfering with RNA splicing, transcription, translation, and replication. Antisense DNA has the added feature that DNA-RNA hybrids serve as a substrate for digestion by ribonuclease H, an activity that is present in most cell types. Antisense molecules can be delivered into cells, as is the case for oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), or they can be expressed from endogenous genes as RNA molecules. The FDA recently approved an antisense drug, VITRAVENE.TM. (for treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis), reflecting that antisense has therapeutic utility.